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The official plan consists of ever-increasing intervals of running, interspersed with fast walking. It also relies on rest days to allow your body to build strength. The official plan takes 9 weeks in total to get you from absolutely no running ability, to running 5K non-stop. Other similar plans are available that may take a longer or shorter time to complete.

Hi there. If similar questions have been answered elsewhere, please let me know.

So I mostly do weightlifting (Strong Lifts 5x5, 3 days a week). I like it a lot, but I feel like running is an important life skill. A few times this month I've had to sprint a block or two to catch the bus and it makes me feel like death for the rest of the day. That can't be healthy. So I thought I'd start to add some running to my routine and a few people recommended this program.

So, a few questions. Because weightlifting is my primary exercise and strength my primary fitness goal, I don't want running to interfere with that too much. I also therefore don't have a lot of time since I already work out 3 times per week (and am in graduate school for a biomedical science, so I work 7 days per week).

What do you think the best way to integrate C25K into my training? Is it ok to do it less than 3 times per week? Is once a week too infrequent? Should I do running on my weightlifting rest days or do them on the same day?

I usually work out Monday/Wednesday/Saturday. I was thinking of adding running on Sundays. I don't want to run after dark (I live in kind of a scary city), and with my work schedule I think the weekends are the only time I could fit it in during daylight hours (at least until the days get a little longer).

Yeah, strong lifts is almost identical to starting strength, so I squat every time. Would it be crazy to do my running after my weights workout (on the same day)? I don't want to do it before and have it mess up my leg strength before squatting.

Is there any reason you couldn't just stretch out the c25k program so you do it once a week? Obviously it will take 3x as long, but I'm ok with that. I want to do running (outdoors) just to develop it as a skill, since I occasionally have to do it in my everyday life.

I lift too and I do a little bit of bootcamp on the side (2-3 times per week), which incorporates quite a bit of jogging and/or sprinting most sessions. If you're lifting quite seriously it will wear you out a lot more, so I found eating right and making sure I got plenty of sleep was extra important.

But of course, this is bootcamp I'm talking about, which also means intense circuits and a lot of bodyweight exercises too. Of course it's going to wear you out! Especially if you're already using those muscles to throw iron around the gym.

I'm going to start C25K just to do some light jogging on non-lift days... I also think it's important to get some useful skills (and our bodies are made for short spurts of running as well as lifting heavy things!) .

I think that the benefit of doing C25K and some regular jogging (that is, cardio fitness and endurance, good way to burn energy and get out in the open air etc) will far outweigh how it interferes with your lifting (which is to say, probably just make you a little sore in the legs, a little hungrier and more tired, decrease your gains slightly).